Our sweet obsession?SFlbIt’s a piece of cake

January 19, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

By Judy Hevrdejs

Chicago Tribune

We are a nation up to our eyeballs in buttercream icing, ganache, fondant and the cakes that support them.

Layer cakes. Cupcakes. Bundt cakes. It is a passionate love affair. Fantastically decorated sweets fill bakery shelves, TV screens and cookbooks.

To put it simply: We’ve got a serious case of cake love, and we’ve got it bad.

“We are a cake-centric society,” said Rose Levy Beranbaum, America’s reigning queen of cakes. “We always have been, and it has only gotten more so. I think it’s because of the ‘Iron Chef’ syndrome.”

The symptoms? Constant viewing of sweet-TV.

Shows such as TLC’s “Cake Boss,” with Buddy Valastro’s family at Carlo’s bakery in Hoboken, N.J. Or maybe Food Network’s “Ace of Cakes,” with Duff Goldman and his team in Baltimore.

Not enough for you? Click on TLC’s “Ultimate Cake Off” or We TV’s “Amazing Wedding Cakes.” And if you can wait until later this year, Bravo will add “Top Chef: Just Desserts” to the mix.

“People don’t know how to do it themselves, so they really love seeing somebody else doing it,” said Beranbaum, author of “Rose’s Heavenly Cakes” and “The Cake Bible,” in its 44th printing.

“Cake Boss’” Valastro would agree. “You know, it’s kind of like watching that show on the Discovery Channel,” he said. “I get sucked into that because it’s, ‘Ahh, how do they make Reese’s Pieces’ And you see it.”

Such sweet-TV fuels our appetite for cakes. So do hundreds of bakeries and cupcakeries. The final swirl atop this multilayered phenomenon? Dozens of cake cookbooks, from “Cakewalk,” by New York sugar artist Margaret Braun on through “The Whimsical Bakehouse,” by mother-daughter bakers Kaye and Liv Hansen from Westchester, N.Y. Coming in April: “Simply Spectacular Cakes,” by London-based Peggy Porschen, who’s done sweets for Elton John and Madonna as well as the centerpiece cake for Stella McCartney’s wedding.

How over-the-top can cakes get? “The cake I’m most proud of I did in the shape of a NASCAR car,” Valastro said. “And it was actual size. That was a monumental task. It took like three days.”

Cake “is the fanciest, most visual aspect of food,” Beranbaum said. “When food starts getting too fussy, you don’t want to eat it. But when it comes to cake, that’s different. It’s a symbol of celebration.” Something you might do for loved ones.

One other reason to bake a cake? “Decorate with your kids at home,” said Valastro, a father of three. “Hey listen, if it comes out lousy, you can still eat it. And the kids’ll never forget that time.”

SWEETHEART OF A CAKE

Remember when a fancy cake was decorated with pastel-tinted royal icing roses, a piped edge and a carefully written missive that began with “Happy ...”?

No more. So much sweet TV and its sugar wizards, cake artists and those working in the Technicolor-bright, sugar-and-butter world of decorated cakes have changed that.

It doesn’t mean there’s no room in the kitchen for the rest of us who want to try our hand at sugar art.

And why not? Especially if you agree with Duff Goldman who writes in “Ace of Cakes,” a book about his Charm City Cakes and Food Network show, that “cake is a physical manifestation of joy.”

To get you started, some decorating tips from the pros:

“Get inspired from other people’s work.” — Buddy Valastro, TLC’s “Cake Boss”

“When designing a cake, simplicity is always best. One idea or element is always better than trying to make two or three ideas work on one cake.” — Goldman, in “Ace of Cakes”

Buy a turntable. “Anybody who wants to be serious about cake decorating needs a turntable.” — Valastro

“Make sure you let the cake cool — even put it in a freezer, so it chills a little bit. It’s easier for you to handle. A half-hour in the freezer will give it a little stability.” — Valastro.

“The trick to keeping crumbs out of your icing is to glide your spatula over the icing, never allowing the spatula to touch the cake surface or to pull already spread icing from the cake surface.” — From “Cake Decorating 101” at wilton.com

“Many factors can affect your icing consistency, such as humidity, temperature, ingredients and equipment. You may need to try using different icing consistencies when decorating.” — From “Cake Decorating 101” at wilton.com

“Dip hands in ice water if, while piping, it [the icing] gets too soft.” — Rose Levy Beranbaum, author of “Rose’s Heavenly Cakes”

“If you can’t make the sides [of a cake] smooth, encrust it with nuts.” — Beranbaum

“There’s nothing wrong with buying pre-made royal icing flowers.” — Beranbaum

RESOURCES

From decorating tools to classes to how-to online videos, here are a few helpful Web sites:

“Ace of Cakes”: Food Network’s Duff Goldman’s team creates a cake “Viking ship,” wedding cakes, offering inspiration. foodnetwork .com/ace-of-cakes/index.html

“Cake Boss”: Videos of old-school piping (TLC-TV’s Buddy Valastro goes swag crazy) and decorative roses, etc. tlc.discovery.com/tv/ cake-boss/cake-boss.html

Rose Levy Beranbaum: Cake cookbook whiz’s blog plus instructional videos on lacquer glaze and more. realbakingwithrose.com

Wilton Industries: The “Decorating 101” page is especially instructive. Want to mix mauve, plum or lavender tinted frosting? Check out the color chart. wilton.com